‘Thanks, babe. You’re here for the season, right?’

It was the ultimate backpacker compliment, and he knew it. Being called a ‘tourist’ was the ultimate insult.

‘Oh, yeah,’ she said, in her pretty little posh English voice. ‘I didn’t want to come here like some sort of, you know, tourist …’ Bingo. ‘I wanted to see the real Thailand.’

Resisting the temptation to ask her what she was actually doing to see the ‘real’ Thailand, Ben instead stuck out his hand and introduced himself.

‘Brad.’

‘Fliss,’ the girl simpered.

‘Brad? Actually, you do look a bit like Brad Pitt,’ said Fliss’s plainer, plumper friend, and Ben cursed himself for not having come up with a better pseudonym. ‘I’m Bex, by the way …’ She also held her hand out, shyly, and Ben shook it, limply.

‘So you two not goin’ to the party?’

‘We’ll head off in a bit,’ said Fliss, trying to sound cool again. ‘No hurry – it goes on all night.’

‘Yeah, so I heard. Maybe I’ll head over later myself.’

‘You could come with us?’ said Bex.

‘Maybe,’ Ben drawled.

‘So, what do you do, Brad?’ She hastily changed the subject – had she sounded too keen?

‘Oh, come on, Bex, that’s such a lame question,’ said Fliss. ‘What do you do? That is so, like, capitalist? Brad is a global citizen, just like us. Aren’t you, Brad? We don’t have to do anything! So much better to just be.’ She giggled as she handed him his beer over the wooden bar.

‘Hey, man, you think I never do anything?’ Fliss was really starting to wind him up, and Ben’s imagination went into overdrive, putting him right back into character. ‘I made, like, a million dollars writing gaming software …’

‘Wow,’ said Bex, gazing at him with undisguised admiration. He ignored her and, still in character, turned on Fliss.

‘Have you ever earned any dollars, or does your daddy just give it ya?’ He felt a bit mean as Fliss’s pretty blue eyes instantly brimmed with tears. Nobody had ever spoken to her like that, let alone taken Bex’s side over hers.

‘Well, actually,’ said Bex. ‘I worked in a pub all summer to save up enough money to come here. Fliss did get it all from her dad.’ She looked over at her friend and giggled nastily. Now Ben didn’t know which of them he disliked more.

‘Yeah, well, your dad paid for your flight, and all your rent while you were “working” in that scummy pub …’ She made air quotes and both girls glared at one another. ‘It hardly paid for your trip, did it, Bexy?’

Ben thought of Natalia’s bleak upbringing, and all he imagined she’d had to do to survive.

‘Hey, before I forget.’ He directed this at Bex. ‘A friend of a friend is staying on this beach at the moment. I’ve never met her before, but I thought I’d look her up. Her name is …’ He took a swig of his beer, and paused, as though he were trying to remember. ‘Natasha? No, that’s not right. Jeez, man, too much weed …’